The vast majority of French people look forward to the summer vacations all year round to disconnect, relax and recharge their batteries, but this period is also eagerly awaited by another category of people who have no intention of resting: cybercriminals.
Changes in behavior and work environments, a source of risk.
- Increased remote working: summer is often synonymous with vacations and remote working. Employees accessing corporate networks from unsecured locations or via public Wi-Fi connections can expose the company to increased data security risks.
- Understaffed teams: it's common for teams, including IT security teams, to be understaffed due to vacations. This can slow down response times to security incidents and reduce routine system monitoring.
- Managing security updates: regular maintenance, including security updates, can be delayed or neglected during the summer, leaving vulnerabilities unpatched for longer than usual, increasing the risk of attacks.
- Phishing and other social engineering attacks: cybercriminals can take advantage of the season to launch targeted phishing campaigns, using summer themes as bait to fool less vigilant employees due to understaffed teams during this period.
- Protecting mobile equipment: as business travel and vacations increase, mobile equipment such as laptops and smartphones are more likely to be lost or stolen, which can lead to data leaks.
- Risky employee behavior: employees may be tempted to use personal devices to access corporate resources, or to circumvent security policies for convenience, thereby increasing security risks.
- Less monitored infrastructure: the company's physical sites may be less monitored during the summer, increasing the risk of physical theft or unauthorized access to critical infrastructures.
Our tips for mitigating these risks
To mitigate these risks, it is advisable to reinforce security policies to ensure strict implementation of security policies, especially for remote working, to train and sensitize all employees and management bodies to the specific risks of the summer period and train them on best security practices, but also to secure mobile devices and implement robust policies for mobile device security, including data encryption and mobile device management (MDM) solutions, to use automated tools to maintain constant monitoring of systems and networks, to equip itself with an anti-spam solution to make it easier to read emails on returning from vacation, and to put in place incident response plans to ensure they are up to date and adapted to respond rapidly in the event of a security problem.
Semkel's monitoring services (cyber, dark and social), cyber diagnostics, audits and employee training/awareness-raising enable you to guard against increased IT risks during the summer months and throughout the year.
To find out more about our services, contact an expert: Contact us.
